Rising Temperatures could Melt Himalayan Glaciers putting Millions of South Asian Lives at Risk

Humi

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
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NEW DELHI — Rising temperatures in the Himalayas, home to most of the world’s tallest mountains, will melt at least one-third of the region’s glaciers by the end of the century even if the world’s most ambitious climate change targets are met, according to a report released Monday.

If those goals are not achieved, and global warming and greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rates, the Himalayas could lose two-thirds of its glaciers by 2100, according to the report, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment.

Under those more dire circumstances, the Himalayas could heat up by 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) by century’s end, bringing radical disruptions to food and water supplies, and mass population displacement.

Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region, which spans over 2,000 miles of Asia, provide water resources to around a quarter of the world’s population.

“This is a climate crisis you have not heard of,” said Philippus Wester, a lead author of the report. “Impacts on people in the region, already one of the world’s most fragile and hazard-prone mountain regions, will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events.”

One of the most complete studies on mountain warming, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment was put together over five years by 210 authors. The report includes input from more than 350 researchers and policymakers from 22 countries.

In October, a landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change found that if greenhouse gas emissions continued at the current rate, the atmosphere would warm by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2040.

Avoiding further damage from this rise would require transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent,” the report said.

In the Himalayas, warming under this scenario would probably be even higher, at 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.1 degrees Celsius), the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment found. Across the world, glacier volumes are projected to decline up to 90 percent this century from decreased snowfall, increased snowline elevations and longer melt seasons.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment touches on the phenomenon of elevation-dependent warming. Though it is well known that temperature changes due to increased levels of greenhouse gases are amplified at higher latitudes, like in the Arctic, there is growing evidence that warming rates are also greater at higher elevations.

“Mountain people are really getting hit hard,” said David Molden, the director general of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, the research center near Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, that led the study. “We have to do something now.”

Around South Asia, the impact of climate change has already intensified. Brutal heat waves are becoming unbearable, making people sicker and poorer, and diminishing the living standards of 800 million people.

Access to water is also a concern. Last spring, shortages were so severe in the Indian city of Shimla, in the Himalayas, that some residents asked tourists to stop visiting so that they would have enough water for themselves.

A government report released last year found that India was experiencing the worst water crisis in its history. About half of India’s population, around 600 million people, faced extreme water scarcities, the report found, with 200,000 people dying each year from inadequate access to safe water.

By 2030, the country’s demand for water is likely to be twice the available supply.
In neighboring Nepal, rising temperatures have already uprooted people. Snow cover is shrinking in mountain villages, and rain patterns are less predictable. Fertile land once used for growing vegetables has become barren.

“Water sources have dried up,” said Pasang Tshering Gurung, a farmer from the village of Samjong, which is about 13,000 feet above sea level.

A few years ago, all 18 families in Samjong moved to a village around 1,000 feet lower after their crops repeatedly failed.

But Mr. Gurung and his neighbors are still worried. Landslides linked to increased flooding continue to thunder down hillsides. The government has offered limited support for resettlement, he said.

And with little money to spare, Mr. Gurung is not sure where he would go next.
“We will be landless refugees,” he said. “How can we survive in the Himalayas without water?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/world/asia/himalayas-glaciers-warming.html
 
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PIND-WALA

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Earth was doing fine for thousands of years but modern progress and evolution fukced everything in just 2 centuries.
 

Saboo

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
Earth was doing fine for thousands of years but modern progress and evolution fukced everything in just 2 centuries.
and earth will keep on doing fine for thousands of years more! Don't believe this BS of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Al Gore started it just to impose carbon tax on all governments..a ploy to collect more money. Statistics don't show that glob is warming more than it does naturally.
 

Humi

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
and earth will keep on doing fine for thousands of years more! Don't believe this BS of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Al Gore started it just to impose carbon tax on all governments..a ploy to collect more money. Statistics don't show that glob is warming more than it does naturally.
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

Saboo

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Haha I might not be making any sense at-all but at-least making you laugh? and that is worth more than a million dollars to me?..and that too Americans!:LOL::love:
 

kakamana

Minister (2k+ posts)
and earth will keep on doing fine for thousands of years more! Don't believe this BS of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Al Gore started it just to impose carbon tax on all governments..a ploy to collect more money. Statistics don't show that glob is warming more than it does naturally.
yar ye tu tum ne dumb trump wali bat kardi, trump oval house main beht ker kahta ha ka kahan ha global warming, kuin ke is dafa tu buhat thand/snow per rahi ha US main!!!!
 

Saboo

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
yar ye tu tum ne dumb trump wali bat kardi, trump oval house main beht ker kahta ha ka kahan ha global warming, kuin ke is dafa tu buhat thand/snow per rahi ha US main!!!!
Trump is not as dumb as you think he is! He is saying no global warming because he knows the real story. Kaka ji you can know it too if you do a bit of research and not be brain-washed by propaganda?:LOL:
 

Sonya Khan

Minister (2k+ posts)
Himalayan glaciers have actually been a bone of contention between different scientists if they r growing or receding since early 2000.... IPCC had earlier rejected notion in 2010 that these glaciers r melting at alarming rate..... Some scientists even claim these r only glaciers ... also called the third pole.....to be actually growing.... go figure....
 

kakamana

Minister (2k+ posts)
Trump is not as dumb as you think he is! He is saying no global warming because he knows the real story. Kaka ji you can know it too if you do a bit of research and not be brain-washed by propaganda?:LOL:
Well tht his point, global warming isnt dealt with warm weather or melting of ice, its extreme weathers in all seasons. B/w when u witnessed below 2 or even - temp in lahore or sothern punjab or sindh?? Did it tht much hot in isb where it used to be very chilly & sometime snow as well. There is no propoganda alone, yes there are exagerations. However there are some emergency & alarming weather situation either b/c of smogh, less forest, more industrialization etc
 

PIND-WALA

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
and earth will keep on doing fine for thousands of years more! Don't believe this BS of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Al Gore started it just to impose carbon tax on all governments..a ploy to collect more money. Statistics don't show that glob is warming more than it does naturally.
No you are wrong. Statistics do show that earth temp went up in last few decades and most of models are correct in the forecasting.
 

Saboo

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
No you are wrong. Statistics do show that earth temp went up in last few decades and most of models are correct in the forecasting.
Well when you are looking at earth's temperature and the environment, don't look at a decade or two but look at a larger picture and you will notice that nature takes care of it and keeps its balance.
BTW the statistics available at most places are tempered with, as they say, and many statistics also available showing the opposite data.
 

PIND-WALA

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Well when you are looking at earth's temperature and the environment, don't look at a decade or two but look at a larger picture and you will notice that nature takes care of it and keeps its balance.
BTW the statistics available at most places are tempered with, as they say, and many statistics also available showing the opposite data.
I will give you one example, air you breath everyday, did you notice the amount of chemicals in it today and 100 years ago ? Smog in cities on Lahore, Delhi and Bejing did not exist 100 years ago but you can continue to ignore and you are not the only non believer.
 

Saboo

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
I will give you one example, air you breath everyday, did you notice the amount of chemicals in it today and 100 years ago ? Smog in cities on Lahore, Delhi and Bejing did not exist 100 years ago but you can continue to ignore and you are not the only non believer.
You are talking about air quality and now what has this to do with the global warming?